Quick Navigation

Northern Illinois University

Teaching with Blackboard

Setting up a CPS Connection for Blackboard Courses


CPS Video Training Series for PC

CPS Video Training Series for Mac

Click the buttons above to view video tutorials. If you are unable to view the videos make sure that all pop-up blockers are disabled and that you have Macromedia Flash player installed. Click here to download Macromedia Flash player.

Listed below is an overview of the steps necessary to set up a CPS connection to courses in Blackboard.

Setup Steps

Request a CPS (clicker) starter kit

To use Classroom Performance System in their classes faculty will need to have a CPS kit which includes a receiver, a response pad (clicker) and CPS software installation CD. NIU faculty should request their CPS kits through an eInstruction representative Susan Junior:

Susan Junior
sjunior@instruction.com
eConsultant, eInstruction
Classroom Performance System CPS
(Office) 630.778.8523
(Cell) 630.542.0218

Faculty will need to provide the following information with the request:

School Name
Department
Course Name
Number of Students and Number of Sections
Faculty Name, E-mail, Telephone
Number of Faculty Starter Kits
Bookstore Contact Name, Address, and Telephone

Place an order with the NIU Bookstore

Faculty will be given an ISBN number by the eInstruction representative which they can use to place an order through the NIU Bookstore to have students purchase CPS kits for their courses. When placing an order with the bookstore, faculty should provide an ISBN number, the number of pads and the eInstruction fax number (940.565.0959) for the bookstore to send the purchase order.

eInstruction will contact faculty members within 10 days by sending them a test kit, set-up instructions, a receiver and the CPS software. A faculty set-up code will be sent in an e-mail.

Install the CPS Software

You can either install CPS software from the installation CD that came with your kit, or it can be downloaded from: http://www.einstruction.com/Downloads/index.cf.

When the installation begins, follow a series of prompts to install the software.

CPS Installation Screen

Choosinng setup type in the CPS Installation Wizard Dialog

After the installation is complete, you will be asked to reboot your PC.

CPS dialog to restart your system after Installation

Create or open CPS database

If you are opening CPS software on your computer for the first time, you will be asked to either create a new database or open an existing one. CPS database is a file with a .cps extension that contains your classes, students, lessons, reports and attendance records. You can have more than one database in CPS, but you can have only one open at a time.

Open or Create an ew CPS database options in CPS

Select ‘Create a new database'.

Specify the location where you would like it to be stored. The default location is ‘My Documents' and give it a name. If you are going to be storing lessons and grades for a number of sections of Spanish 101 you teach, you can name it FLSP101 or Spanish101, for example.

Location and name of the new CPS file in CPS

 

Link your Blackboard class to CPS

  • Log in to Blackboard by going to http://webcourses.niu.edu.
  • Select the course that you would like to link to CPS.
  • Once you are in your course, click on the Tools link on the left:

Tools link in Blackboard

  • Then click on CPS Connection

CPS Connection link in Blackboard

  • Next click on Register Class.

Register Class button in Blackboard

  • Set the class end date.
  • You will be prompted to create a CPS-Blackboard Connection username and password if you have never set those up before. Your username and password don't have to be the same as your NIU Novel login id and password. The CPS Connection password won't expire like your Novel password typically does.
  • If you have previously set up CPS Connection username and password, you can specify those.

eInstructions for CPS Class Setup

 

  • Faculty Member Setup Code will be provided for you automatically.
  • Click Register Class.

Import your Blackboard class to CPS

  • Open CPS software.
  • Click on the Prepare tab.
  • Click on the Classes & Students tab.

Classes Tab in CPS Software

  • Choose the Import button.

Import Button in CPS Software

  • Select Blackboard from the list of import sources.

Selection of Blackboard as Import sources in CPS

  • Enter your CPS-Blackboard Connection username and password and select Northern Illinois University from drop down list of institutions.

Entering NIU username and password for CPS Blackboard Connection account

  • Select the class you would like to import or you can "Select All" if you would like to import all classes

Selecting the classes for import from the CPS Blackboard Connection

  • Enter you NIU Blackboard username and password.
  • Click Done.
  • Next to the class name you will see the number of students in that class. If you see 0, that means that none of the students have registered their clickers yet in your class. You will see that number change once they start registering clickers.

Display of number of students who have registered clickers for the CPS course

 

Sync CPS with Blackboard

  • When in CPS, click on Classes tab.
  • Highlight the class you would like to sync by right-clicking on it.
  • Select Update roster from Blackboard server.

Selection of update roster from Blackboard server option in CPS

  • You may be prompted for your Blackboard username and password. After CSP syncs with the Blackboard server you should have updated roster information.

 

Last Updated: 09/05/2007